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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Almond and Cherry Torte

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...A happy convergence of incidents led to the creation of this buttery torte. While sorting through my pantry, I found a half-used container of glaceed cherries that were still edible and soft enough to use. The prior evening I'd stumbled on a, new-to-me, site called Cake Crumbs and Cooking The feature that day had been a cherry cake that sounded like it would be perfect for tea or dessert. A version of the recipe also appeared in Delia Online and in the BBC Good Food Magazine. Thus, armed with cherries and several recipes, all of which had been well-received, I began to make my first ever cherry cake. The first step was to convert ingredients from metric to standard US measure. That done, I made a few changes to the base recipe to reflect the fact I had no self-rising flour and only half the cherries suggested in the original recipe. Undeterred, I carried on and within two hours had a lovely cake with a soft buttery crumb and marvelous almond flavor. Unfortunately, while they added texture to the cake the taste of the cherries was barely perceptible. In an effort to keep the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake, I halved and rinsed the cherries as had been suggested. I took the additional step of tossing them with flour before adding them to the cake batter. All that changed nothing. They sank anyway and probably lost flavor when their syrup was washed away. The strange thing is that I liked the cake and found the fruit almost superfluous. The cake is barely sweet but the almond meal and topping make it extremely flavorful. It is far more like a Viennese torte that a cherry cake. Would I make it again? Not with glaceed cherries, unless I had leftover bounty from my Christmas cooking. While I've heard some classify this dessert as being cheap as chips, it is not inexpensive to make and, while it is lovely, I like more bang for my buck. For those of you who are curious, here's the recipe.

Directions:1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of a high sided 8-inch cake pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Grease paper. Dust bottom and sides of pan with flour. 2) Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until incorporated. Add almond extract and mix to combine. 3) Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Fold into egg mixture. Fold in cherries, almonds and milk. 4) Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Level top and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Bake for 1¼ -1½ hrs or until cake has risen and is firm to the touch. 5) Remove cake from oven and cool in pan for 30 minutes. Turn pan onto wire rack to cool completely. 6) Dust top of cake with confectioners' sugar just before serving. Yield: 12 servings.

It looks lovely, and I like the texture. But sinking fruit is what always turned me down. My mom used to make a quick yogurt cake with raisins, they always sank and I'd just throw away the bottom of each piece of cake :)))

Sounds like you have a pretty yummy Viennese Almond torte on your hands. Sorry the glaceed cherries didn't work out so well. Not being a fan of glaceed fruit myself, sounds like this would be the way for me to have them.

Mary...I just love your enthusiastic approach towards trying recipes.I, however adore how candid you are about the results ;o)I'm not a fan of glaceed cherries either. I would have probably concluded the same. Oh well...at least you gave it a go!The photo, however does look pretty appetizing ;)Have a great Sunday,Claudia

Looks delicious. Whenever I make my pound cakes, etc. I add the fruit or nuts to the sifted flour mixture. That way they don't sink to the bottom. If you get a chance I am having a giveaway starting June 16th so please stop by. Thanks so much.http://sweetkatskitchen.blogspot.com/

I really love this kind of cake, simple, not too sweet yet a zing in just the right topping or a handful of fruit. I'm not a glacé fruit kinda girl but I'd love to make this with summer's best fresh cherries which are just making their appearance. Wonderful recipe, Mary!

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